mom is 88, has parkinson's and likely parkinson's dementia. she had psychometric testing a few days ago. her memory is going, she has some problems with word-finding, and sometimes she doesn't make sense. she also has urinary incontinence.

recent tests show that her sodium is normal, her kidneys are functioning well, she does not have a UTI.

her parkinson's has been well controlled for many years, but lately, she is having more and more trouble with standing, walking, turning. and more foot and leg pain.

her neuro is gradually increasing her carbadopa-levadopa but the only thing that seems to have done is make her dizzy. there's been no improvement with the physical problems. once the dizziness resolved after the first increase, he increased it again and now she is dizzy again. meanwhile her motor ability is declining rather rapidly.

he would like to start her on the exelon patch, but wants to see, first, if he can increase the c-l to the point of helping her with her physical symptoms without additional side effects.

mom also has very high blood pressure (sometimes up to 220/80) which is poorly controlled. too much bp medication and she crashes, passing out due to a precipitous drop in pressure. fortunately she can sense when this is about to happen and she sits or lies down, so no serious falls yet. so there is a posibility that she has vascular dementia, i think.

just wondering if anyone else has a parent or spouse with these problems and what the approach has been in treating them? i am not trying to second guess the neuro. i think he is doing the best he can with what he has to work with. and her primary keeps trying allkinds of bp meds, in different order and doses, etc, and things stabilize for a while and then go to heck.

Thu Mar 21, 2013 7:27 am

irene selak

Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:59 pmPosts: 1978

Re: increased problems with moving.

Vascula Dementia doesn't have the motor skill problems as you have described your mom does, I think the Exelon patch is a good idea to try and when they do they will start low in dosage and gradually work up to amount needed some people have reported good results in short amount of time too !

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